It’s been a long time since I’ve written. Don’t judge. Life has been hectic. I’ve got one kid in each school division this year: elementary, middle and high school. To say that life is crazy is an understatement. Add to that the fact that we live in CHINA and hopefully you’ll find it in your hearts to forgive me.

The holiday season, Christmas season, is upon us. As expats in China, our holidays are readily accepted here. Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween, Christmas. The Chinese have way more holidays – So. Many. Holidays. They’ve got Chinese New Year (actually a week), Tomb Sweeping day, October holiday (another week), Dragon Boat Festival, Ghost Festival, Moon Festival… the list goes on and on. Add them all together and there always seems to be something to celebrate in China!

There are also some “shopping” holidays. I compare them to our “Hallmark” holidays in the US. We have grandparents day, Valentine’s day, Sweetest Day etc. The Chinese have “11” day, also known as “Singles Day”. The premise is that if you’re single, you’ve got nobody to buy you gifts, so you should buy them for yourself! (Not bad, China. Not bad.)

This year, single Chinese people bought 9.3 BILLION dollars worth of stuff. In 24 hours. It’s the biggest shopping holiday in the world – four times bigger than the US “Cyber Monday”. According to Business Week, “Popular lore in China has it that Singles Day began as a lark in the mid-1990s. University students created the holiday, which they called guanggun jie, or bare branches festival, and picked the date 11/11 for its visual symbolism. They used to go to karaoke bars, eat youtiao—fried dough strips that resemble the number 1—and celebrate being unmarried in a culture that doesn’t generally. Alibaba appropriated the idea and introduced the first Singles Day sale in 2009.” There was also a big sale on 12/12 but I can’t seem to understand why?

Photo: warehouse ready to ship out 11/11 goods

The Chinese also really enjoy Christmas. The stores are decked out, sometimes oddly, but decorated nonetheless. They play jingle bells over and over. Dancing Santas abound. Apparently the Chinese like to give butter cookies as gifts for the holidays because they are everywhere!

In China, Santa Claus is called 圣诞老人; Old Christmas Man. A friend found some santas dressed in orange at a local mall. Sorry, I don’t have a photo. Something new that is becoming popular with the Chinese is giving apples on Christmas Eve. Many stores have apples wrapped up in colored paper for sale. People give apples on Christmas Eve because in Chinese, Christmas Eve is called ‘Ping An Ye’ (which means quiet or silent night) and the word for apple in Chinese is ‘Ping Guo’ which sounds similar. (Not to be confused with the catchy tune, “Xiao Ping Guo“, which you will never get out of your head once you hear it. Be warned. Click the link if you dare.

Photo – Over the top Christmas decorations in Shanghai

China is also the Christmas manufacturing capital of the world. The X’Mas Village in Yiwu, China, is produces 60% of the world’s Christmas “stuff” – and 90% of the Christmas goods to be sold in China. These “red factories” have been featured in the news lately, showing the horrible conditions and highlighting the cheap labor.

Photo – “Red Factory” in Yiwu, China.

Obviously there is a market for these goods, or the Chinese wouldn’t be churning them out! Christmas has truly become a global, commercial holiday. This painting by satirical artist, Pawel Kuczynski, kind of sums it up:
Chinese workers putting the gifts directly into people’s homes.

Last year, I had a very hard time at Christmas. We don’t overdo Christmas – anymore. I’ll admit that when my kids were young, we/I did. But for years now, Santa brings 3 gifts each and my husband and I don’t “give” the kids anything for Christmas. Granted, we took the kids to Thailand last year and rode elephants on Christmas. That probably should have been enough. But when we returned, I really wanted the three Santa gifts to be under the tree. He had a very hard time finding good, meaningful gifts for my family. That’s because he/I had only dabbled in the glory that is – TAOBAO.

This year, I have done 99% of my Christmas shopping on Taobao. Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon.com. It’s Amazon on steroids. Seriously, you can get anything on Taobao. Most of it probably comes through Yiwu…and it will arrive at your doorstop within a day or two. Pretty amazing. I’ve ordered a custom made “Dead Pool” Halloween costume, mini terra-cotta warriors, split baby pants, fur lined leggings, and all sorts of gifts.

Photo – Taobao delivery guy

When shopping on Taobao, you need to run the website through Google Chrome to get the translations. You can either search in Chinese or English, but often if you search in English? The prices are higher. No lie. As a source of comic relief, I like to share some of the translations with my friends in the US. They make me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoy them too! (I prefer to read them aloud in a Morgan Freeman voice.) Happy holidays!

On old classic I call, “Ode to a Sweater”:

A small delivery delays due before the entire single ended up in our hands
Main wash tag all full genuine flawless slightest flaw if you have receivedThat must be your self-mutilation.
Delicate soft skin-friendly cotton knitted fabrics particularly sensitive skin M clothes so do not worry about not wearing a fat stick. fabric buttons miscellaneous line there is a sense of leaders echoed the same color tones. Mimi hit it with both eyes. Casual code skinny people can wear comfortable clothes feeling good.
No matter what the occasion is formal or casual fit or do you want to open the heart with absolute pregnant with chic wish?
Thin models can not wear thick spring and autumn and winter into several proposed multi-color for the wear.
It is nice and comfortable cabbage price is not.

A copycat Cartier bracelet:

Free shipping promotional classic fashion diamond bracelet. star lesbian couple bracelet with titanium steel 18K jewelry are titanium steel, medical health materials, does not produce allergic reactions , many allergies! girls personally verified!
General quality of the non-market can be compared. OUR baby to sell at wholesale prices, the highest absolute quality, cost-effective support of confinement!
Baby is the lowest, do not bargain, do not wipe zero, do not embarrass the pro-customer, oh!

Women’s bathing suit, didn’t buy it. Who would? –

Amy is everyone’s nature, each mother is the only way a woman gave birth to a little baby belly will inevitably be, how to do the most perfect harmony between the happy mother and beautiful? The swimsuit pleated side using a special process shrink, wrinkle reduction throughout the entire length of the sides of the large amount of wrinkle reduction makes the perfect cover pot, with a pot belly folded, no pot will not seem cumbersome, Truly there is no pot are the same flawless.

Backpack- I bought it. It was not fleshy but it was limp:

Photographer truthfully say: get a good hand light. Yeah, filmed bag of this size can be said that the weight was the first time, open the dust bag, touch the “fleshy” bag, although it is waterproof nylon but feel not feel shriveled thin but very dense and smooth soft but not limp did not type.
above all Tingting small clamshell children like little hat looks very like air,
Traces neat workmanship, exquisite workmanship is necessary, the big fashion movement designed to make small backpack green. And very practical.

Wishbone necklace, a little “Western Legend” for you:

Wish Bone is actually chicken sternum (Last mom bought whole chicken, I also get that a “Wish Bone”, huh, huh).
In Western legend, two people were holding a “wishbone” forked two, their wish, and then to pull the respective directions wishbone snapped. Who is there to get big, who wishes will be realized. So make a wish bone is the Western tradition vow signs become popular in Europe and America fashion element.

We were delighted to host my sister-in-law’s family in Shanghai right before we left for summer. Her entourage of seven – yes seven – people enjoyed the sights of Shanghai, as well as Xi’an, Beijing and Hong Kong. Although they only stayed in Shanghai for 4 days (not nearly long enough) my sister-in-law says she’s “not done with Shanghai” and she’ll be back…

Needless to say, we were a spectacle and no doubt, the subject of many photos in Xi’an.

Our descent into summer began with that whirlwind overnight trip to Xi’an (home of the terracotta warriors), unpacking and repacking then leaving for the US the next day. I traveled alone with my three children back to the “promised land” and it went well. They’ve become such seasoned travelers…it makes me proud.

Due to multiple delays, we arrived in the US around midnight. Hungry, tired, wired, excited. We hopped in the rental car and cruised back to our “home”. An empty house in Cincinnati. A great friend supplied basics in my garage – sheets, towels, dishes and blankets. I sent the kids off to shower the “travel scum” away as I went out the door – DRIVING MYSELF – to seek out food. At 1:00am. My search led me to Wal-Mart. The only place open at that hour. God bless America and its consumerism. I was oddly disappointed that the store was almost empty. There were a couple of moms of newborns wandering the aisles and the night shift was busy stocking shelves. I had to contain my joy. I really wanted to dance down the aisles while singing – I may have actually done it. I don’t remember. I was exhausted. I grabbed some basics and headed home, we got to bed around 3am and the jet lag began. We all had it in different phases, so it seemed that one of us was always asleep. For a week.

Our first week was spent in a whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, shopping and visiting with friends. Staying in our empty house was a bit disconcerting but we’ve gotten used to it. Here’s how we spent our summer:

-traveling to Miami, Florida to celebrate my in-law’s (amazing!) 50th wedding anniversary party
-celebrating our son’s First Communion (also in Miami), hitting the beach, shopping, and eating pizza at Sir Pizza in Key Biscayne
-traveling to Connecticut to visit my family, hanging out with my crew of cousins (15 of them PLUS all their kids!), hitting the beach, ziplining and eating pizza at Pepe’s in New Haven. Naturally.
-shopping (hoarding)
-enjoying our friends

We’ve have a great time here, visiting friends and family and enjoying the shockingly clean air. No lie, every morning I gasp in wonderment. So. Clean. Unfortunately also full of pollen. We don’t seem to have that problem in Shanghai.

Although I’m having fun here, stateside, I’m ready to go back. Home. To China. I’m kind of missing the daily craziness of living in a culture so dramatically different from my own. While out for an amazing dinner with friends, we were asked for three “takeaways” from our first year in China. The first and foremost for me is the daily adrenaline rush associated with the constant exposure to a different culture. There’s an article making its way around the ‘web, 17 things that change forever when you live abroad, that mentions this. Everyday something happens that gives me that adrenaline rush. In the US this summer, the only time that happened was when some loser cut me off on the highway. Getting used to living with a heightened sense of my surroundings has made me a very different person. In China, it can be gazing in wonderment at the worlds second tallest skyscraper growing before my eyes – or it an be the guy holding a live turtle on a stick. (Selling it for turtle soup.) Either way, it’s a rush. Building? Astonishment. Turtle guy? Grossout.

A second “takeaway” would have to be travel. We’ve had amazing travel opportunities this past year, Bali, Thailand, Beijing and Xi’an. Next year we plan to travel to Cambodia, Myanmar and Hawaii. We’re staying in Shanghai over the October holidays to enjoy the (purportedly!) beautiful weather. And to save some cash because although we are close to so many amazing destinations, travel with a family of five is never cheap. Anywhere.

A third “takeaway” would be that I miss my independence. As an American woman, I’m used to doing what I want, when I want to. In my own car. On my own time. Not so in China. In China, I’m dependent on our driver whom I share with my husband. Sounds glamorous? Nope. Not at all. Everything must be planned and the logistics of evening activities can get quite crazy. And there’s a major lack of privacy – my driver knows everything I do and everywhere I go. A lot of my friends have scooters, but I don’t. Yet. I ride my bike and that affords me a bit of independence, but a scooter would be better. On the other hand, having a driver lets me text and ride. And we never have to designate a driver. He’s always there!

I’ve had a few medical issues since moving China. Back in the fall, the air quality was sub-par (putting it mildly!) and my lungs didn’t seem to understand how to function anymore. The “Western” doctors here in Shanghai prescribed medications and told me to stay indoors with air purifiers running. What’s the fun in that? So, back in November, I turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). As they say, “when in Rome…”

Traditional Chinese Medicine originated in ancient China and involves acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage, cupping and moxibustion (burning herbs over the skin). It’s huge in China, but you might be interested to know that there are over 10,000 TCM practitioners in the US serving 1,000,000 Americans each year. I thought I’d give it a try. Why not?

I chose a clinic based on a friend’s recommendation and nervously made my first appointment. The day arrived, and off I went. The clinic is very “Western” in nature and also offers traditional medicine and testing. However, they are best known for their Chinese medicine.

I met with two doctors, both TCM practitioners. Dr. W., the asthma/lung specialist, spoke only Chinese and the other helped translate. As I looked out the window from the 13th floor, I realized I could barely see buildings in the distance. It was that kind of day.

These tall buildings should be seen clearly from this distance. They were not. THAT kind of day.

Dr. W. asked me some very specific questions, as though she already knew what my answers would be. Like – “You don’t wake at night wheezing, right?” “You are always cold and wear a scarf, right?” (I was not wearing a scarf that day, but I usually do.) “You’re always cold, right?” Yes. “You are very sensitive to smell, right?” Yes. On and on it went. Some questions were very personal, and I answered them directly. Then she checked my tongue. Very closely. She also listened to my lungs and they checked my pulses in my wrist. According to TCM, the appearance of the tongue is very telling. A “normal” tongue is pink or red in color. As expected, right? Some variations can be: red tongue tip scarlet tongue body, pale tongue and green tongue. Not sure what a green tongue signifies, but it cannot be good. The wrist pulses can tell the practitioner about the health of your qi, blood and organs.

My diagnosis? My qi (energy flow) is severely imbalanced. My spleen is weak and I am “sensitive to toxins”. Specifically, air pollution. I’m not surprised. The doctor prescribed tea and acupuncture for me.

This is what a bad air day looks like on my iPhone:

The Chinese “medicine” tea comes in small white packets. My first prescription contained around 20 packets per day. My first day, I giddily opened the first packet and made the mistake of smelling the contents. Good God, the smell. Here in China, I am regularly assaulted by various stenches. But very, very few of those stinks can compare to my first Chinese medicine tea. I mixed the packets with some hot water, split the dose into 2 and attempted to drink. Needless to say, it did not go well. In fact, it came right back up. Immediately. Into the kitchen sink. Day after day, I’d chug my swill and day after day, barely any of it stayed in. My friend suggested I use a straw then a lemon wedge chaser (Thanks, Tricia!) and that helped a little. When I returned to the clinic, they gave me a new prescription and removed the most offensive ingredient – Kuxingren (Bitter Almond). I couldn’t tell if the tea was working, but I was willing to continue taking it. Some other ingredients in my “cocktail” were:

Ganjiang – Dried ginger root

Mimahuang – Honey ephedra

Gancao – Licorice

Chenpi – Sun-dried tangerine peel

Chuan xiong – Ligusticum

Fuling – Poria

Taoren – Peach kernel

Cuwu weizi – Schisandra

I know you’re thinking that these ingredients sound really good? Licorice tea? Peach kernel? I assure you. They are horrific.

Tea packets. At this point I was excited and positive about trying TCM tea!

Then I put the powder into the glass. And smelled it. My attitude began to change.

And finally…the “tea”. No. That’s not a Guinness. I wish it was.

A few days later, I began my acupuncture and cupping therapy. The acupuncturist met with me and reviewed my chart. I then reclined on the table, and the assistant shone bright lights on me to warm me up. The acupuncturist then set about poking me with small needles. Some in my face, my neck, my arms and legs and one right on top of my head. Some were completely painless, but one or two made me cringe. Once the needles were in place, it was quite relaxing. My sunny bed of nails. After around 20 minutes, the needles were removed and I was instructed to flip over onto my stomach. Then the cupping therapy began.

These are acupuncture needles:

I was more worried about this form of therapy, but there was really no pain at all. The acupuncturist lit a torch of some kind ( I could not see it) and created a vacuum inside small fishbowl-shaped glass cups. She then put these cups on my skin and twisted, creating suction. Sounds fun, right? Not so bad. The cups stayed on for about 15 minutes, then were removed carefully. I heard the acupuncturist “tsk’tsk-ing”. I asked the translator what that was all about, and she told me that my marks were very, very black. Which is a good thing, as it is supposed to draw toxins from deep inside the muscles to the surface, where the body can break them down. It was true that as time went on, my marks did get lighter and lighter.

These are the cups:

This is my back, post-cupping session. This was not after the first session, so my marks are not too “black”.

As time went on, the acupuncture became more and more painful for me. I began to dread the entire process and didn’t think it was beneficial in any apparent way. I continued my treatment for 4 months, but the nerve pain and my inability to tolerate the teas forced my decision to quit. From what my friends tell me, if you have a specific concern – like an injury or chronic illness – acupuncture can be very successful. Since I’m just “sensitive to toxins”, it didn’t seem to do much for me. Now I’m just drinking tea regularly – the real kind, not the offensive powder kind. There are a lot of benefits to tea, and I’m planning on learning more about them. But for the summer, I’m thinking of researching the benefits of iced tea. Of the Long Island variety.

Like this:

I’ve had laundry on my mind. Not because I have to do it, but because I have NOT had any to do! We do have a wonderful ayi who works very hard keeping us in clean clothes, but until this weekend, we had very few clothes to wear. Then our sea shipment arrived. All you expats out there are shouting, “It’s like Christmas!” I’m thinking, “Why do I need this stuff?” I survived just fine on one pair of yoga pants, 3 pairs of shorts, assorted sleeveless tops and sandals. Now I have jeans, sweaters, fleece things, socks, pajamas, more yoga pants, jackets, coats, blouses…and a sparkly teal 80’s formal dress. Don’t judge.

Last week I went on a walking tour of the Former French Concession (stay tuned for my “Brief History of Shanghai” post to learn more). We saw lots of laundry hanging out to dry, as is the norm here in China. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday you can see our clothing on racks outside on our back deck. It never occurred to me that there might be a reason – other than just a cultural thing – for putting it all out there, so to speak. Let me tell you what I learned.

Our tour guide told us that the Chinese people believe that the sun disinfects their clothing. They hang it out whenever they can. I wondered if there was any truth to this? This is what I learned. Apparently, when you air dry your clothes in the sun they are naturally disinfected and whitened. Not sterilized, just disinfected. The sun provides UV light, and UV can be used to disinfect water and damp laundry. UV from the sun also interferes with the reproduction cycle of bacteria by damaging their DNA. The Chinese also frequently wash their shoes and put them out to dry. This also makes previously smelly shoes, less smelly.

The Chinese people have been connected to laundry for a very long time. Every wonder why? Early Chinese immigrants to the United States had a very tough time finding jobs due to their lack of English language skills and plain old racism. As a result, they started turning to laundry work, which was considered low status because it was “women’s work”. Laundry work required long days of exhausting manual labor over kettles of boiling water and hand irons heated on stoves. By the 1870’s, Chinese laundries were operating in all towns with Chinese populations.

The case of the Yick Yo laundry really shows the discrimination against the Chinese people in California. In the late 1800’s, the white people of San Francisco lobbied for a law requiring that all laundry businesses be housed in brick buildings, thereby making it impossible for the Chinese laundry owners to afford rebuilding their businesses. Chinese business owners decided to fight back. They argued that the law was inherently discriminatory, and won! They got to stay and run their businesses.

The advent of the electric washing machine was the demise of the Chinese laundry. There are still some in the US, I read about one in Brooklyn, NY.

Remember the old Calgon ad? Ancient Chinese secret? It must be the air-drying. Shhh…don’t tell.

Like this:

Tai Tai is a Chinese term for a wealthy married woman who does not work. (Thanks, Wikipedia!) It’s like calling someone a “lady”. It can be a good thing – or derogatory.

It can also mean the wife of highest status in a polygamous marriage. Especially when there are concubines. A man just reeds to be able to distinguish between his women, am I right? Ummm…I don’t think there are more of me (wives OR concubines) around. However, there have been times when I asked my husband for a wife of my own! Now I have one! Sort of. She’s not a wife, but an ayi.

We have an ayi named Yufen. She calls me “Miss” to my face but “Tai Tai” when referring to me. I like to think that she’s using it respectfully? Who knows. I don’t really care! I’m just happy to have her.

An ayi – translated as “auntie” – is a housekeeper, nanny, cook, translator (if you’re lucky). In short, a Renaissance woman. She can do it all. We found Yufen from a US family who was moving to Europe for their next assignment. She came highly recommended and I’m so pleased to have her. She is pleasant, friendly and very, very efficient. She arrives around 8:45, cleans the breakfast dishes, starts the laundry, makes the beds, cleans the bathrooms and vacuums the floors. THEN she makes lunch and we plan dinner. I LOVE her. her English is solid, much better than my Chinese. I’m getting to know her, and really like her.

Yufen has fixed issues with the house – leaky pipes, no hot water, then TOO hot water, low water pressure…we’ve had a lot of water problems. She will help me with my Chinese, once I have some to be helped with! She can stay with the children and seems to really like them a lot. She showed us how to make dumplings the other day, and they were DELICIOUS!

I’m thankful to my husband for interviewing the three women I found from departing expat families. I’m hoping that Yufen is as happy with us as we are with her.